Monday, February 18, 2013

An abortion advocate finally notes death of woman from abortion

If any abortion advocate was going to actually publicly mention that a woman died this month from a legal 33 week abortion it would have to been Amanda Marcotte and as usual Marcotte finds a way to turn this woman's death at the hands of abortionist LeRoy Carhart into an attack on prolifers.

She begins by arguing that Jennifer Morbelli's abortion was medically necessary. The title of piece claims the abortion was "medically indicated." She later expounds on this:

Here's the reality: Maryland prohibits post-viability abortions unless the mother's health is in danger or the fetus has a serious defect. We may not know the particulars of this woman's case, but we know that she had a medically necessary reason for her abortion, and was likely referred by her obstetrician.

First, let's start with Maryland's law. Marcotte links the NARAL's write-up of the law. Here's the actual text of the law. Women can have abortions after viability if:

(i) The termination procedure is necessary to protect the life or health of the woman; or

(ii) The fetus is affected by genetic defect or serious deformity or abnormality.

So any genetic defect will do. It doesn't have to be "serious."

Second, let's point out that we already know the abortion was for some kind of fetal abnormality. While, we don't know which one, the abortion wasn't performed for Morbelli's health or life. There's a reason Marcotte doesn't mention this. She wants her readers to be under the false impression that the procedure (occurring over multiple days at a non-hospital facility) was medically necessary (it wasn't) and was possibly being done to save Morbelli's life. If the abortion was done to save Morbelli's life, she wouldn't have traveled from New York to Maryland and undergone multiple days of dilation.

Marcotte then claims prolifers somehow believe Morbelli was a moron.

To paint her as some sort of moron who was hoodwinked into an abortion because she was too dumb to know better is beyond vile. That's a level of misogyny that assumes women have no brains at all, that assumes women are too stupid to make even the most basic decisions about their lives with the assistance of expert advice.

I haven't read any prolifer paint Morbelli as a moron. Not one and Marcotte, unsurprisingly, doesn't provide one. While a number of prolifers struggle to understand the decision to abort a viable, wanted child because of a fetal anomaly, I haven't read one claiming she was "hoodwinked into an abortion because she was too dumb."

Marcotte's concluding paragraph is a long-list of strawmen and name-calling in a lame attempt to get abortion advocates to pay no attention to the dangers of LeRoy Carhart circuit-riding ways and his negligence in this case.

They're idiots, pretending not to know that surgery carries risk and that doesn't mean that people have to weigh benefits against the risk.

Which prolifer has ignored the risk of surgery? Many prolifers noted their problem with Carhart performing the abortion and then flying back to Nebraska and not returning the Morbelli's family's calls.

And they're deeply, deeply sadistic, not only in wanting to force women to undergo dangerous pregnancies gone horribly wrong, but also not even letting the few who pass away have any peace from their vicious shaming of women for making complex reproductive decisions, even women who, for medical reasons, had no good choice at all.

And the evidence that carrying this child was dangerous for Morbelli's before she went to Maryland and put herself in Carhart's hands?

Any attempts to pretend that the anti-choice movement isn't a bunch of organized misogynists who mindlessly want to sacrifice women's futures and even lives for the hell of it should be put to rest by this disgraceful abuse of a woman's memory, simply because they disagree with her choice to end a pregnancy gone wrong.

So prolifers aren't allowed to mention the name of a woman who died from a late-term abortion but abortion advocates can shout Savita's name from the mountaintops?

After ignoring Moribelli's death for a week, Marcotte stands on her pedestal, intentional deceives her readers about the situation, makes up prolife arguments from scratch, never mentions Carhart's failings and acts like prolifers are the ones who hate women.